Mi Pueblo

El Salvador Remembered

Last Updated on Monday, 16 July 2012 22:59
Written by Vivian Seguin
Monday, 16 July 2012 22:49

Wanting to improve my Spanish and yet give something back at the same time, I accepted an invitation from Maricarmen Guevara and Charles Hett to join them on a three month volunteering journey to El Salvador.

We rented a small house in Ciudad Romero, a farming community in Usulután, which is the largest department of El Salvador and is situated in the southeast part (Bajo Lempa region) of the country.

Despite visiting several fascinating places I opted to remain primarily in the region to become better acquainted with the people I met there.My linguistic assistance was offered to anyone who wanted to learn English, from young children to adults. One to two hour sessions began at 7:30 a.m. and continued as late as 7:00 p.m. with two hours off each afternoon for me to watch the local football (soccer) league play.

At the beginning, students were asked: “Can you speak any English? Why do you want to learn English?”When asked why he wanted to learn, a thirteen year old boy answered “Porque quiero escribir canciones de amor en inglés y venderlas a los Estados Unidos.” When asked if he knew any English, he answered “Si… ‘House of pleasure”. “Where did you learn that?” I asked and was told “At school”. “Noooo way, hombre!” was my reply, so he confessed “You Tube”.

Coalition against Gold Mining in El Salvador

Written by Magazine Visión Latina
Sunday, 06 June 2010 18:36

The capacity of coordination of the Ottawa’s Coalition against Gold Mining in El Salvador brought hope for the communities that are under the attacks from the Canadian mining industry in El Salvador. A solidarity week was organized by the coalition which ran from March 21st to the 27th 2010.

With applauses for all their work we present a summary of all the activities that happened during that week: The conference Free Trade Agreements: The New “El Dorado” of Canadian Mining Companies at the University of Ottawa presented speakers from different organizations, among them Bernardo Belloso, representing La Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería en El Salvador; Paul Dewar, New Democrat MP for Ottawa Centre, Abraham Rivera, Research for Economic and Political Community Action, CIEPAC (Chiapas, Mexico) and Jamie Kneen, Communications Coordinator, Mining Watch Canada. The conference was well attended and brought the Canadian and Latin-American communities together.